Tumor Viability Assessed by Cerebral Blood Volume Measurements

Abstract

A common clinical problem in neuroradiology is the differentiation of recurrent malignant glioma from radiation necrosis. Frequently, patients present one to two years after surgery and radiation therapy with large intracranial lesions. The lesions enhance with intravenous contrast material and have associated vasogenic edema. It is virtually impossible to distinguish recurrent tumor from radiation necrosis based solely on the imaging characteristics. Previous studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) have been successful in differentiating these entities based on variations in metabolic activity [1–3].